Over the past five decades, great strides have been made in the identification and eradication of infections from laboratory rodents. As a result, most contemporary biomedical research rodent colonies are relatively free of the pathogenic viruses, parasites, bacteria, and fungi that cause clinical disease. However, some microbes, especially those agents that cause subclinical disease, remain in an enzootic state in many research colonies. These agents, despite their insidious nature, have an impact on physiologic parameters of the host and thus on the results of animal experiments, independent of their pathogenic potential. Therefore, timely and accurate diagnosis of infectious disease in animal research models is critical to the success of biomedical research. To this end, institutional veterinarians closely monitor the health of research animals through periodic systematic examination of sample groups of research animals against a predetermined list of infectious agents. Rodent health monitoring can generally be accomplished using a combination of molecular and serological diagnostic assays. Molecular diagnostic tools provide a real-time assessment of infection; whereas, serological tools detect the presence of antibodies to infectious agents, thus, providing an historical perspective of infectious disease exposure over the life of the animal.
The current practice for collection of blood or serum for serological evaluation of infectious disease in laboratory animals includes: most commonly, euthanasia of animals for collection of at least 100 μL of blood by cardiocentesis. Once collected the whole blood sample is allowed to clot, which typically requires 2-12 hours, then whole blood is centrifuged and the serum is separated from the cellular (clotted) fraction. Next, the serum is shipped to a facility at refrigerated or frozen temperatures using an overnight service (generally one or two pounds of ice packs are required) in a STRYOFOAM™ shipping box.
This practice is inconvenient and expensive in light of the amount of animal colonies and the number of analytes that must be tested to ensure colony health and homogeneity. Accordingly, the inventors have identified a need in the art to provide a simplified and efficient method for sample collection and analysis to ensure cost effective colony management.